Righteousness
What does it mean to be righteous? The definition of many people has righteousness being assigned to people who act holier than thou or self-pious. They are usually the same people who point fingers and see themselves as better than someone else. This is not how the Bible describes righteousness.
Others attribute righteous to those who follow a moral compass of what is good, right and pure, but it is much more than that. To be truly righteous is to reflect the face of GOD and exhibit the motives and His purposes towards one another and to keep His Ways.
To find righteousness within ourselves we must look for the reflection of His Son and judge for ourselves what we see peeking back at us. The next step is to ask ADONAI, “What do You see?”
“Righteousness [tsedeq] and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and Truth go before You. How blessed are the people who know the shouts of joy! O YHVH (YeHoVaH), they walk in the Light of Your countenance” -- Psalm 89:14-15
Righteousness is Seeking YHVH: If righteousness and justice are the foundation of GOD’s throne, then it needs to be at the core of who we are as infants (offspring) of GOD. If we want to live and possess what He offers, we must pursue His righteousness” -- Deuteronomy 16:20
Each person who is righteous must pursue Him and His Ways so that we may live and possess the land which ADONAI our GOD is allowing us to live in and share that piece of land with His Holy ones – the Israelite believers.
Hebrew has no punctuation, no question marks, no apostrophes and no exclamation points. Knowing that level of detail, one of the ways to create emphasis is to duplicate words. Being righteous and pursuing it is not a passing suggestion. This is a Command!
Seeking out righteousness would put you and I on the right path to honoring ADONAI.
Being righteous meant something! It meant that you were reflecting GOD’s goodness. To be unrighteous was to be adversarial to GOD’s goodness, plus, you are emitting a tarnished reflection.
If we are the Father’s children, we must be as He is – holy (set apart for His purposes) and upright.
When we are not righteous, we are not representing Him, and we are not bearing His name (character).